Reduction in violent crimes and increased law enforcement saw India improve its peace ranking by four positions from 2016, but it is less peaceful than it was a decade ago, according to the 2017 Global Peace Index (GPI), released by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a New York-based think tank that develops metrics to analyse peace.

India’s 2017 rank was 137 of 163 countries, moving up four positions from 141 in 2016. However, deaths due to external conflict have increased, the report said, specifically in relation to the conflict in Kashmir from mid-2016.

India is less peaceful than it was a decade ago, and it suffers from more violence than Brazil and South Africa, both countries wracked by violence.

A decade ago, India had a GPI score of 2.437. Lower the score, the more peaceful a country: Iceland, the most peaceful country, had a GPI of 1.111 in 2017. India’s GPI score in 2017 was 2.541 (out of 5), an improvement from 2.565 last year.

The peace index is based on 23 indicators related to level of safety and security in society, the extent of domestic or international conflict, and the degree of militarisation.

The world has become slightly more peaceful in 2017, with an average 0.28% improvement in “peacefulness” since 2016.